the clock still ticking, hoping they find some debris. >> thanks for your reporting. that's it. i'm bill weir. jake tapper may be back tomorrow. or maybe i'll be here as well. but bedo know that wolf blitzer has the latest in "the situation room" which starts now. bill, thanks very much. the mystery of flight 370. malaysian authorities openly confirm the investigation is criminal and has been indeed for weeks. passengers are cleared of wrongdoing, but the flight crew, the cargo handlers, the food service personnel are still under scrutiny. new security rules, malaysia airlines decides that no pilots or first officer may remain alone in the cockpit. so why did it take them so long to do what the united states has been doing for years? and the air search is to resume shortly, but the search zone once again has been moved. thrive australia. i'll speak with australia's ambassador to the united states.

i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're getting new details on the disappearance of flight 370. malaysian officials' open knowledge of the investigation is criminal in nature. they say all the passengers have been cleared of any role in hijacking or sabotage but make no much plan ket comment about the crew. sources say malaysia airlines pilots have received a security handout which includes a new rule stating that no pilot or first officer is allowed to be alone in the aircraft. as aircrafts prepare to resume their search, the focus of the hunt has now shifted again. it's moved closer to the australian coastline. our analysts are around the world and here in washington the with the kind of special coverage only cnn can deliver.

our justice correspondent, pamela brown. pamela? >> for the first time malaysian thundershowers are on the record confirming what cnn has been reporting, that this is, in fact, a criminal investigation and has been for weeks. overnight we learned that malaysia airlines sent out an alert to its employees heightening cockpit security, perhaps another indication of where this investigation is focusing. malaysian officials made a bold statement overnight clearing all the passengers of any role in taking down the train, ruling out hijacking, sabotage, personal problems, and psychological issues. >> this is a criminal investigation. it is ongoing, and we are still waiting for expertise from experts overseas and internally. >> the malaysian investigators say they haven't finished interviews with all passpasseng relatives. how can they be so sure that the

passengers on board from 14 different countries played no role? >> to say that everybody's been cleared is really an outrageous statement in my mind. this takes many months to do a thorough investigation. to me that's a stretch and i would not have confidence in that statement. >> the focus of the investigation is now more squarely on the crew members, especially the pilots. down to every minute detail, what they ate, whether they ate the same meals, and even who prepared the food. >> just looking for anything out of the ordinary, anything unusual. somebody that might snow something, something that might have been potentially put into the food. >> but sources telling cnn investigators believe the culprit was in the cob pit. overnight we learned malaysia airlines sent out a security memo noting no pilot or first officer is allowed to be left alone in the cockpit. adding to the mystery and perhaps confusion, officials say today they haven't ruled out mechanical failure as a possible cause even though they're

classifying this as a criminal investigation now. meantime the malaysian prime minister arrives in australia today. he talks with australian officials about the search effort. that's the latest. >> hold on for a moment because i want to bring in our law enforcement analyst, former fbi assistant director tom fuentes and our cnn aviation analyst and former ntsb managing director peter gold along with our aviation analyst, former 777 pilot, mark weiss. thanks very much. the search area, peter, keeps shifting. first the south china sea, southern indian ocean 700 miles north, to the southern indian ocean, a few hundred miles east to the australian coastline. what is going on? >> well, they're not dealing with hard facts. they're dealing with supposit n suppositions and they're dealing with very difficult mathematical equations. and they're trying the best they can but they don't have the hard data to zero in on the smaller sized area.

they're shooting in the fdark. >> they haven't found any wreckage whatsoever. it doesn't instill a lot of confidence in what's going on. >> no. i think they'll keep moving the search zone around until they maybe find something and have a better chance. but, you know, it just seems like they're throwing darts in the wind right now. >> if they say this is a criminal investigation, as you reported, pamela, why are they not ruling out mechanical failure? how can it either be criminal, someone did this deliberately, an individual, or catastrophic mechanical failure that just happens because of maybe the boeing 777 wasn't working properly? >> i think that's a question we've all sort of been asking yourselves today. bottom line, i think that's a reflection, wolf, that they just don't have the concrete evidence, the facts to back up a criminal act so that seems like the most logical theory here. as we were talking, i was talking with tom earlier about the fact that it could possibly be, if the plane was sabotaged, perhaps that could lead to mechanical failure and cause a plane to go down. but i think the biggest message is that every theory remains on

the table. >> it sounds, mark, and you're a 777 pilot, that the focus is on the pilots and the co-pilots because they had the ability, the skills, the wherewithal to do this if, in fact, it was done in the way it has been described. >> well, it certainly appears that the focus of the attention now is on the cockpit, the pilot and the co-pilot. but, again, go back to that, it's based on the cockpit. woe still don't know who was in cockpit, if there was an invited or uninvited guest. it focuses on the cockpit and the easiest ones at the moment are the pilot and co-pilot. >> i can only assume, peter, and you've been involved in a lot of these investigations, that these investigators know more, know something that they're not sharing with all of us. that's why they've said it's a criminal investigation and they're focussing in on the crew. >> well, you hope they know more than they're sharing. the malaysian people will do

everything they can to get t.j. holm holmes. they have been a persuasive and vocal group criticizing them and influencing the investigation. i think they have so to say, listen, you guys are cleared, time to go home, we'll talk to you later. >> why would they clear all 227 passenger passengers given the relatively small amount of time. do they know for sure none of them could have had something do with this? >> i don't think it's possible. for my experience, an in-depth investigation of every person is going to take months, not a few weeks, especially when you're talking about investigation in 14 different countries as well. it just seems to be premature. on your comment about a skrm investigation, why don't we know more, you wouldn't know more. the authorities will always hold that information close to the vest as it would be in this country. >> you assume they know more than they're letting on. >> that's a fact. they know more and they're not going to let it out. >> they've only interviewed 170 people, malaysian authorities, given the fact 227 passengers

plus crew members, 239 people all together, that doesn't sound like a whole lot of interviews. >> it's not a lot of interviews. but i agree with tom, they've got to know more than what they're saying. they're holding back some. let's hope that it's actually accurate information that has an impact on this solution. >> mark, is there something they should be doing, based on your flying these 777s, and let's not forget, not only 239 people aboard this plane but this is a u.s.-made boeing 777, one of the most popular jetliners in the world. there are about 1,200 flying around the world, new ones up, up toe about $200 million apiece. if there was a mechanical problem, you have to learn about that to make sure that problem is resolved, is fixed. what should they be doing? mark, if they said, what do we need to do right now, give them some advice. >> i want to make sure they go to boeing with all the possible scenarios and at various

altitudes over various tracks so they would have a better idea where that aircraft might have come down, do it with explosive decompression, do it with potential fires of the lithium batteries and the cargo compartment and run all these scenarios and see what makes the most sense, then eliminate those and try to focus on where the rest -- >> you know boeing. that's a pretty responsible company. a huge operation. no one has more at stake right now, their reputation, on the line. i assume they're doing all that. >> i can guarantee they have hundreds of people working on this investigation 24/7. they are desperate to find out. >> nobody wants to know more -- obviously the families want to know first and foremost, but boeing really has a huge amount of interest in what's going on. >> absolutely. they have the deeper pockets. when all the litigation starts in this case, it's going to go after boeing more so than -- >> not just the litigation, their reputation. they want to make sure these planes are safe, there isn't a mechanical problem. but i just want to nail down on this, pamela, because you've been doing a lot of reporting on this.

even though they say they haven't ruled out mechanical failure or something, i really don't think that's the cause, they really think it was a criminal -- somebody or some people were involved in doing. >> right. we had heard them say, you know, they believe this is a deliberate act in the cockpit and sources told cnn they were investigating as though it was a criminal act. well, even though at this point sources we've been speaking so say they haven't found anything in the backgrounds of those pilots that would implicate them, they look through their hard drive, did a search of their homes, been interviewing their family members, but for whatever reason and perhaps they're withholding information we don't know, for whatever reason they are focused on that. >> we know there are two cases of pilots who who committed suicide by taking their planes and killing everybody on board including themselves. the egyptair pilot, the silk air pilots from singapore. were there indications in advance that either of these pilots -- you investigated the egyptair disaster -- that they are pilot was showing signs of craziness if you will that would have led them to do this?

>> with each affair we had indications there were problems with the co-pilot prior to the flight. they probably never should have ledlet him in the cockpit. with silk air it wasn't until a week or ten days after the accident we were able to start piecing together. there were suspicions but it wasn't until a week or ten days that the ntsb started to have a real picture that there could have been a problem. >> and it was the silk pilot who took out a million-dollar life insurance policy. >> yeah. >> something like that. stand by. we'll continue to investigate. up next, is the u.s. doing enough in the hunt for flight 370? the defense secretary chuck hagel is getting ready to meet with his malaysian counterpart. what more can he offer? and australia has certainly been bearing the brunt of the search effort. i'll speak live with australia's ambassador to the united states. he's here with me in "the situation room." ♪ [ woman ] i'd be a writer. [ man ] i'd be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] i'd be an architect.

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built for business. defense secretary is meeting with his malaysian counterpart in a couple hours. barbara starr joins us now with details. barbara? >> wolf, the two men are attending a long-scheduled defense minister summit, defense ministers from across the asia-pacific region scheduled long before this event happened. now this will be a topic of discussion and some questions about how long everyone can stay out there searching. >> reporter: defense secretary chuck hagel and his malaysian counterpart met on tuesday. today, they'll talk more in depth about the search for

flight 370. help with the deep sea search s. and recovery. hagel aides tell cnn the secretary will listen. but it's not clear what more the u.s. can offer. two u.s. navy search planes have been flying for weeks and underwater gear is ready if wreckage is spotted. hagel says international cooperation has got to improve. >> coordination is a key part of this. how do we bring the complement of full assets of nations together to cooperate and connect when you have these disasters? >> reporter: so far the pentagon has spent over $3.3 million out of a $4 million budget. mainly for the cost of flying search aircraft to look for debris. with batteries on the data recorders fading, accident investigator david sousy says a fast change is needed. >> yesterday the prime minister

said we don't know what altitude it was. it could have been 12,000, could have been 35,000. so let's narrow that stuff down. i think that's what chuck hagel will be looking for, more specifici specificity. give me the numbers and tell me what those assumptions are so we can put our people on it and figure this out. >> reporter: it may be time for a desperate measure on the ocean floor. >> i hope they're thinking right now, let's get that pinger locator into the deepest, deepest trenches. let's eliminate the possibilities to say at least we know the pinger, if it was working, isn't in that trench. >> reporter: chasing satellite images of what turned out to be trash in the ocean has been a failed strategy for finding wreckage. >> i think it comes back to the idea of, hey, i've got google earth, i can see things in my yard. why can't we find in this plane? it gets down to some basic understanding of how satellites operate. they're not on all the time. they're not searching the globe 24/7, 365. >> reporter: even as though

batteries begin to run out on the data recorder, the british have sent a submarine and another ship that can map the ocean floor to try and help, but everyone will tell you, wolf, the first step is to find some debris from this plane. wolf? >> really, really hard. we all know. barbara, thanks very much. is there more that the united states could be doing right now or should be doing? let's take a closer look right now at cnn's richard quest, who is joining us. so, this defense minister, he's also the acting transport minister and let's say right now that transport ministry portfolio is a little more important than the defense ministry portfolio. but what do you think is going to emerge if anything from this conversation between these two defense ministers? >> i think what will emerge from them is a very strong level of support by the united states for what malaysia is doing and the commitment that they will do whatever they can. certainly when it comes to the numbers out there, 3.3 million out of a 4 million budget so,

the u.s. will obviously pay what is necessary from the u.s.' contributions and that will continue. but they're going to have to come up with more than just -- the malaysians will have to say what it is they want rather than just, here, you get on and do it, because the u.s. is going to be turning around and saying, tell us what you need, show us where you want us to go, and we will then be able to make a judgment on how we best assist. putting it another way, wolf, the ntsb is already there. the pinger and the locator is already there. the faa is already there. the fbi is already there. all the major assets -- and of course the poseidon is already there. what more do they need to ramp it up further? >> i assume he's going to be asking for more help. what else could the u.s. be doing? >> i think you're talking about expertise, which certainly has been handed over in large amounts. i'm not certain that there's anything more in terms of

expertise on the aviation front they could do. are you looking at greater assets, military assets? even an aircraft carrier or a carrier group. those are the sort of things. but at the moment, everything we've heard is that is not relevant. merely sending more stuff at this point is not the answer. >> as you know, malaysia airlines now making major security changes in the cockpit, saying a pilot is not going to be allowed to be just one person in that cockpit. there will always have to be someone else inside. the timing of this decision, what do you make of that as far as the implications for the investigation? >> the implication is very clear that something happened within the cockpit, within the two men in the cockpit, and now malaysia wants to tighten up on its cockpit policy. but i have to tell you i've been talking to one or two pilots in europe where it's the captain or the first officer leaves the

cockpit, there isn't another person who goes in. so it's in the united states this rule is pretty hard and fast. one comes out, someone else goes in. i would expect in the fullness of time that becomes the global norm. >> there was an intriguing comment from the malaysian police inspector general who said they're looking at food, the food that the crew eats, the food that the pilots eat right now. explain what may be going on here, why they're doing this. >> that's a very good question. i wasn't entirely certain. i mean, the old idea, was it poisoned, did the butler do it,n this you've got the question of, you know, the traditional view has always been if you'll remember the pilot, one has fish, one has meat, they don't eat the same meal in case of food poisoning delivered or otherwise. i have the toll you on many airlines now that is just broken in the bridge. pilots may bring their own food. food may not be provided.

they'll buy it from inside the terminal. on long-haul carriers they will choose from the menu. and their choice from the menu will not be certainly from the business class menu, will not necessarily be what did he have, i'll have the other. one reason for that, of course, woman, on really serious long-haul flights the flight crew is known as augmented. there's not just two, there's three. on a very long haul there's four. >> and you know what, frustrating that once again today they announced they're shifting the search area to a different location. it does not instill a whole lot of confidence that it's the satellite, radar, whatever it takes. they're moving this constantly. what does this tell you? >> that they've very little idea other than those initial radar data between the south china sea and the straits of malacca, the military primary radar. we know they have that. they've got the handshake ping.

we know they've got from immarsat. they've literally put one plus one together and they've come up with this carrier. they scour it, they find nothing. they do the only thing they can which is start to wig it will search area around that parameter. wolf, i'll be blunt. it would not surprise me and i would not criticize them if the experts on the international front turned around tonight or tomorrow or the next day and said we've refined the data, we now think it's a thousand kilometers in the western direction. that is how little they've got to work on. >> all right. well, wouldn't be surprised by a lot of these developments because there have been so many twists and turns over these past three weeks. we're now on week four of this mystery. thanks very much, richard quest. coming up, aircrews are getting ready to resume on for flight 370. we'll go thrive the staging area in australia.

and his country is doing the heavy lifting in the airliner search. my interview with australia's ambassador to the united states, tim beasley. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." did you know, your eyes can lose vital nutrients as you age?

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aircrews are getting ready to resume the hunt for flight 370 but their target area has shifted closer to the australian coast as the prime minister arrives in australia to get a fisthand look at the search efforts.

kyung, tell us about this revised search effort. >> reporter: the way that this whole plan has worked as far as the new search area is once they clear a certain section of the indian ocean, the planned search, they move it and it's generally been contiguous. you may notice if you are following this day by day, the search area moves. the reason why it moves that much is because they've cleared that entire area. that means they're making progress. they've cleared an area. what's going to happen today is they'll try to clear more area. there are about a dozen planes scheduled to take to the air. in about 30 minutes a new search day begins off perth here. there will be nine ships. they have stayed throughout all of this. weather conditions have not been terrible. and, wolf, they did clear about 237 square kilometers yesterday so they are making some pretty good progress. wolf? >> the malaysia prime minister,

kyung, he's in feather as you know, wants to get a firsthand look at what's going on. what else is he planning on doing because cooperation between malaysia and australia clearly is critical? >> reporter: clearly critical, but we're not sure how much they're talking. they do seem like they're two separate investigations. malaysia dealing with everything that happened before the plane disappeared and then australia picking up on the search and recovery. we did see the malaysian prime minister touch ground yesterday here in australia. we understand that he will be arriving here at the military base in israeaustralia just out of perth, he'll be doing this in front of the cameras, meeting some of the search teams. this is interesting because it does appear to be somewhat of an optics game. wolf? >> thanks very much, kyung lah. we'll check back with you. shenise perth, australia. australia, by the way, is is certainly bearing the brunt of

the flight 370 search effort. joining us is australia's ambassador to the united states. thanks for coming in. >> good to be with you. >> tell us about the coordination, the prime minister of malaysia in australia, ready to meet your prime minister. what's the objective here? >> first of all, ma leighs are in charge of the overall investigation. and we are responsible for this part of the investigation or the search because it's in the australian area, so we're doing that coordination. but any materials that are found by any of the parties who are engaged in this will be taken to perth, it will be collected there, and then take on the malaysia. >> malaysia is in overall charge but the search operation australia is in charge. >> yes, we are. >> have you found anything yet? >> no. as far as i'm aware, we haven't found anything yet. we're eliminating areas from our inquiry. there's a very good search process out there. if there is any chance of

finding anything or anything to be found, this will fine it. >> what's frustrating is they keep moving the search zone. originally in the south china sea, then it was the southern part of the indian ocean, then 700 miles north, more of the central part of the indian ocean. now closer, a couple hundred miles closer towards australia. what is going on here? >> well, they've had these challenges before them. the satellite investigation was groundbreaking. as a groundbreaking exercise, it's a bit stuck. you suggest particular areas which inquiry might take place and we're eliminating those areas. we'll go through an area identified as possible, look further in the areas adjacent to it. that's what's happening now. the previous search area was the product of an earlier calculation subsequently adjusted. we're not doing those calculations. those calculations are being

done by people with the sort of real background experience in how the satellites operate and calculations from that. but we do respond to it in the search areas that are created. >> what happens if you don't find anything in this new search area a few hundred miles to the east closer to australia? >> we keep going until hell freezes over. i have experience in an incident in western australia which used to be researched when i was defense minister trying to follow the crews of hma in sydney which sunk off the australian coast. it took us 60 year, but we did find it. from this point on, it will be at the back of the minds of australian surveillance operators which operate through this area all the time they have got to keep a lookout. something will happen at some point in time. if it's gone down off the australian coast, the indian ocean guy will take suits, cautions, whatever onto the australian coastline eventually.

>> that could take -- >> could take months. could take years. and that is what the new coordinator of information in australia -- >> i want to be precise. you have no doubt based on everything your government has learned that this plane wound up in the water. >> well, all -- we only go on the advice that we're given, wofrl, and we're given the advice by the people who have investigated this and we're responding to that. it's come down in their mind in an area that is in australia's area of search responsibility. therefore, we coordinate it. and it's an extraordinary exercise. chinese, japanese, koreans, new zealanders, australians, some who have get on well, some of them who don't, are all engaged in an exercise which shows just how much the plight of those poor people who are on that aircraft has touched the hears of all of us. >> i want to play a clip, the prime minister of australia, tony abbott, he gave us all a lot of hope a couple weeks ago when he said this --

>> new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for malaysia airlines flight mh-370 in the southern indian ocean. the australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search? >> at that point he was pretty upbeat about what was going on but hopes have been dashed since then. >> yeah. it's a very difficult process. it's not one that we're completely unfamiliar with as i said in searches off the australian coast. this is a vast area. but there is hope and there's also determination. hope may get qualified by the length of time it's taking to do things, but determination will stay there. we are a very -- we have very close relationships with the chinese and very close relationships with the malaysians. we're not in the business of letting them down.

>> and you say the search will continue till hell freezes over. i want to bring richard quest into our conversation. he has a question for you, ambassador. richard, go ahead. >> yeah. ambassador, good evening to you. >> good evening. >> one of the big issues is nobody doubts the willingness and capabilities of the search operation, but the traveling public is looking at this and absolutely aghast on a question of confidence in aviation that basically, bluntly, a 777 can go missing and no one knows where it is. you can see that, can't you? >> i can see that, richard. and i can see why you're concerned about that. i think one of things that's been happen, and in part as a result of the intensive activity that you and others have given this, considerable expertise, is right now around the world, people must be sitting down and thinking about proper controls on transponders. what, if any information ought ougt to be led up for the black box. you couldn't let it all up.

might be able to send bits and pieces of it up to satellites from time to time. people have already learned a lot about aviation safety from the exercise to this point. i don't think the thing will be the same again. but one thing will be absolutely the case, and that is governments right around the globe will react to this and start to insist on some changes from the airlines. >> i know six australian citizens were aboard that plane, so this hits home to everyone in australia, particularly. qantas airlines -- >> yes. >> i don't know if you fly 777s. does qantas airlines -- >> i don't fly 777s, but i do fly 777s home because from washington to perth, perth is my home. >> qantas doesn't fly 777s. >> t >> they don't, but emirates, which has a relationship with qantas, does. i fly home every year at least once using a 777. >> very popular plane. >> a popular plane and this is a terrific plane. in terms of the human dimensions

of this, a story needs to be told. their chief marshal houston, an enormously capable aviator and is in charge -- >> your air marshal. >> yeah. yeah. in charge of the process, lehas been on your show from perth, who is terribly troubled by the missing -- husband missing -- said she wasn't getting enough information. he gave her his personal cell so she can contact him anytime she like and he'll respond. >> final question. mechanical failure or criminal activity? from what has been told by the malaysian authorities they seem to be leaning towards criminal activity. >> either the pilot or co-pilot or some crew member -- >> or somebody else in regard to that claim. >> that's australia's conclusions as well. >> no. we take our conclusions from the malaysians, heading up this investigation. >> ambassador, thanks for coming in. hope you'll come back.

our special coverage continues. in the next hour we're learning more about today's closed-door meeting of malaysian officials and some of the passengers' families. another major story we're watching developing in the wake of a deadly earthquake. we're bringing in some frightening new pictures of the moment everything started shaking and even worst quakes. are they still to come? these days, everything your business does

is done on the internet. and tomorrow you'll do even more. that's what comcast business was built for. slow dsl from the phone company was built for stuff like this. switch to comcast business internet. then add voice and tv for just $34.90 more per month. and you'll be ready for tomorrow today. comcast business. built for business. we'll get back to our special coverage-of the mystery

of flight 370 in just a few moments but there's another important story we're follow right now. aftershocks are rolling across northern chile today in the wake of last night's deadly magnitude 8.2 earthquake. there's also an earthquake off panama today and all of this comes just days after a quake and a swarm of aftershocks in california in the l.a. area. cnn's brian todd checked in with experts today to see what's going on. brian, what is going on? >> all those earthquakes you mentioned are in this notorious ring of fire, this area in the pacific rim prone to tectonic shifts, earthquake, volcanic eruptions. chile's earthquake last night was massive. it released a lot of seismic energy. it put that whole region on a tsunami warning. but even with all of that seismologists say chile dodged a bullet. >> reporter: a fearsome jolt inside a grocery store. customers desperately rush out, items crashing from shelves. as a siren sounds, residents

hurry along darkened streets. the woman appears to be praying as her home convulses. this man is racked with fear but grateful he's in a shelter. >> translator: my house was little bit destroyed, but the important thing is that we made it here. >> reporter: the 8.2 magnitude quake in chile damaged more than 2,000 homes, triggered a tsunami, at least one major fire, even caused a prison breakout. roughly a million people were evacuated. virtually the entire south american pacific coast was in danger of tsunamis. how violent was it? >> this darker yellow area here outlines where about 50,000 people were shaken extremely strongly right next to the area where the fault broke. >> reporter: one of the u.s. government's top size molss says experts thought that one fault line in that area of chile near the city of iquique would be in trouble. >> this particular area had not had a major earthquake since

1887, therefore seismologists recognized it was due. >> reporter: it could be just a fore shock. experts say an even larger quake could strike chile. they just don't know when. it's the sight of the most powerful earthquake ever reported, a 9.5 magnitude in 1960 that killed thousands and it's in the world's most dangerous quake zone, the ring of fire, an arc of fault lines circling the pacific basin that's prone to earthquakes. in that ring, southern california, where multiple quakes and dozens of aftershocks in recent weeks shook buildings and nerves. >> yep. we're having an earthquake. >> reporter: is the big one in southern california going to hit soon? >> we can't know whether a big one is coming to southern california soon, tomorrow, next week, or a decade from now. what we do know is one's coming eventually and the small earthquakes are indicating that that earthquake process is ongoing. >> reporter: ongoing in a broader region that's recently experienced seismic events which have exacted a staggering human

toll. the sumatra quake and tsunami in 2004 and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in japan. both measured 9.0. together, they killed more than 240,000 people. >> but despite being this that same ring of fire, are they all technically connected? not all of them. mike says the recent california tremors are not connected to that earthquake in chile last night. he says there are different tectonic plates in different regions moving in different ways. wolf? >> brian todd, thanks very much. brian working that story. just ahead, more of our special coverage of the mystery of flight 370. finally malaysian officials are on the record confirming this is a criminal investigation. we expect the air search to resume momentarily. we're going thrive australia. the planes, they're getting ready to take off again. ♪

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president obama spent the afternoon at the university of michigan. he talked about the new total of signups for obama care telling

students that year's total enrollment could fill michigan's football stadium 65 times. but it doesn't mean the reform fight is over. let's go to michelle kosinski who is joining us live with more on the very latest. >> hi, wolf, the president was certainly fired up at that speech today. but just because more americans than expected signed up for obama care and the administration could not be more thrilled hardly means that this is any less of a political hot button right now or the complexity of this issue on which america is deeply divided is going away. ♪ president obama landsed at the university of michigan today to boost another big item on his list this term -- raising the minimum wage, but still basking in the glow of those big obama care numbers. >> oh, and by the way, 7.1 million americans have now signed up for coverage to the affordable care act otherwise known as obama care. >> reporter: the administration

touted the effects of its creative strategy months in the making. the zach galifianakis parody show got more than 30 million views. >> have you heard of healthcare.gov. >> here we go. okay. let's get this out of the way. what did you come here to plug? >> reporter: celebrities sports stars were drafted to do their part. >> you can go there to find an affordable health plan. >> reporter: sparking "saturday night live" to mock the lengths to which president obama was willing to go to make health care go viral. >> and we'll give you pharrell's hat. >> reporter: like a throwdown to opponent, a chance to tell some success stories. >> sean casey from salina beach, california, always made sure to cover his family on the private market, but pre-existing medical conditions meant his annual tab was over $30,000. the affordable care act changed that. >> reporter: today, though, republicans refused to

acknowledge an administration win here. >> obama care is not a success to the millions who lost their health care policies that they liked. >> reporter: and brought their own stories, from the dark side. >> a young man i talked to last week back in california whose premiums doubled and his co-pays and deductibles tripled. >> reporter: they work hard at the numbers that the administration not not been able to provide. how many of those enrolling were not insured before, how many are paying their premium, but there are numbers that come out of certain states that show that those numbers seem to be quite high. wolf. >> michelle kosinski at the white house with the very latest. we're getting a disturbing news from some sort of incident at ft. hood in texas. we're working on that.

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there's watching. then there's watchathoning. ♪ happening now, our special coverage of the mystery of flight 370. police are zeroing in on the cockpit crew. they're stressing this is now a criminal investigation, and they're also looking at other

potential suspects who may not have flown on the plane. crews are about to head to a new search area. is there reason to hope that this time something will be found in we're live in australia as the search is about to resume. and what did passengers' families learn today during a closed-door briefing? cnn is in malaysia. we're pressing for answers. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we expect planes to take off at any moment for a new search zone in the southern indian ocean. the latest shift in the hunt for flight 370 is adding to concerns that time and resources are being wasted. nearly four weeks after the plane vanished, malaysian authorities openly acknowledge that a crime was likely committed and are providing new details about their investigation. our correspondents and our analysts are following every lead and every misstep they're here in the fi